Amount of HIV in genital fluid Tani (HealthDay)

(Wednesday, 6 April HealthDay News) — a development that could enhance the prevention of HIV, a new study of heterosexual couples confirmed that the risk of HIV transmission increases with the level of virus in sperm and cervical fluid.

Before it, has not proved that the conclusion - that more virus translates a higher probability of transmission - said Senior study author Dr. Jared M. Baeten of the University of Washington in Seattle.

"It confirms what we thought in the biology of HIV," he said, "and it gives us new information on HIV genital levels be particularly important, even regardless of the levels of blood".

The study, researchers obtained samples of genital fluid of 2,521 heterosexual couples living in seven African countries. Most were married and living together. The study of two years, one partner in each pair has been infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, and none took anti-HIV drugs.

In the course of the study, published April 6 in the journal Science Translational Medicine, 78 partners contracted the infection in the relationship.

The researchers compared cervical and increase samples of fluid for semen of partners who transmitted virus with samples from men and women that transmit the virus and concluded that the risk of HIV transmission has almost doubled with every HIV specified in genital fluids. (In some cases, transmission of HIV had no sign of virus in genital fluids, even if it was in the blood.)

The results are "really useful to find new studies of search for new strategies," said Baeten, an assistant professor of medicine and global health. "You can develop strategies that reduce HIV rates, only in the genitals not in blood, such as microbicides."

The study is useful for some reasons, said Dr. Peter a. Anton, Director of the Centre for research in HIV prevention at the University of California at Los Angeles, who has co-authored a commentary accompanying the study. Not only it suggests a way to determine who is most likely to infect a partner, it also allows researchers to study those who did not infect people, with which they had sexual relations.

This can help researchers better understand "the natural protections the penis, vagina and rectum have we want to assure you that we maintain," he said. The study "highlights what we need to look forward,", he added.

However, the study, which was "really well done", said Anton, has limitations. He appeared only to heterosexual couples and not to persons at higher risk of becoming infected with HIV, such as gay men and sex workers.

The study does not examine how often HIV-positive people with no detectable virus in the blood spread the disease to their partners. HIV drugs can often reduce the level of HIV in the blood to zero, while the virus hides in other parts of the body.

Worldwide, more than 7 000 new HIV infections are diagnosed each day, according to background information in the comment of Anton. In the overall situation, these new discoveries can do much to reduce HIV infection rates, he said.

Noting that many HIV-positive people is not aware that they have the disease, Anton said: "the biggest problem in the transmission is that many people know their status."

More information

For more information on HIV/AIDS, visit the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

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